Not So Famous Pato O’Ward Wins IndyCar’s Return To The Milwaukee Mile
If he wasn’t famous yesterday, he sure is now.
Mexican IndyCar driver Pato O’Ward won the first IndyCar race held at The Milwaukee Mile since 2015.
The Arrow-McLaren driver started eighth, but worked his way through the field and led the first race of the Hy-Vee 250 double weekend from lap 119 to 185 until a round of pit stops, then took command on lap 195 and held on to the finish. It was O’Ward’s third win of the season and his second in IndyCar’s new hybrid era.
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Team Penske’s Will Power didn’t make it easy for him. He put heavy pressure on from second over the final twenty laps, but just couldn’t find the pass. Power was the last driver in the field to win at Milwaukee, taking the checkered flag in 2014.
Crossing the line behind them was Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Connor Daly, who qualified 18th and put in a career drive to finish on the podium looking like he may have caught Power if the race was a little longer. Santino Ferrucci brought his A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet home in fourth place.
O’Ward was the subject of some controversy this week, when IndyCar CEO Mark Miles on Friday suggested that one of the reasons IndyCar doesn’t have a race in Mexico is because it doesn’t have a Mexican driver that’s famous enough to market there, despite O’Ward having one of the largest fan followings of anyone on the grid.
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“I will say it’s pretty clear that Pato isn’t as famous as the last previously famous Mexican driver [Adrian Fernandez],” Miles said, according to IndyStar. “(O’Ward) is really gaining ground, and he’s actually on some billboards now. He’ll probably complain that I haven’t dragged him (into conversations) and that he should be the guy to go in and make the deal.”
O’Ward on Saturday said that he and his team had made several initiatives to market him and IndyCar in Mexico and that the interaction with management has been minimal.
Power was coming off a wire-to-wire win at Portland that moved him into second in the season standings, 54 points behind Alex Palou with three races remaining is now 43 points back after Palou finished fifth at Milwaukee.
IndyCar will be back at Milwaukee for another 250-lap race on Sunday then heads to Nashville Superspeedway for the season finale on Sept. 15. Five drivers, including O’Ward in fifth, still have a mathematical chance to win the season standings, with Colton Herta and Scott McLaughlin in third and fourth.
Full results:
1. Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 250, Running
2. Will Power, Chevrolet, 250, Running
3. Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 250, Running
4. Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 250, Running
5. Alex Palou, Honda, 250, Running
6. Linus Lundqvist, Honda, 250, Running
7. Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 250, Running
8. Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 250, Running
9. Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 250, Running
10. Scott Dixon, Honda, 250, Running
11. Christian Rasmussen, Chevrolet, 250, Running
12. Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 250, Running
13. Felix Rosenqvist, Honda, 250, Running
14. Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 249, Running
15. David Malukas, Honda, 249, Running
16. Jack Harvey, Honda, 249, Running
17. Nolan Siegel, Chevrolet, 249, Running
18. Pietro Fittipaldi, Honda, 248, Running
19. Katherine Legge, Honda, 248, Running
20. Graham Rahal, Honda, 248, Running
21. Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 247, Running
22. Colton Herta, Honda, 246, Running
23. Sting Ray Robb, Chevrolet, 244, Running
24. Romain Grosjean, Chevrolet, 243, Running
25. Kyffin Simpson, Honda, 238, Running
26. Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 146, Contact
27. Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 146, Contact
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